Graham
Submitted photo | David Graham
David Graham recently spoke at the Beavercreek Rotary. Graham has spoken regularly at various service clubs to inform them about topics relative to his position.
Submitted photo | Greene County Commissioners
Rick Perales, David Graham, Dick Gould, and Tom Koogler pose with Graham after he was honored with a resolution recently. Graham, who is retiring at the end of the month, has received many awards in his career including the prestigious Richard J. Makowski Award as Ohio’s Outstanding Auditor of the Year 2021.
XENIA — Longtime Greene County Auditor David Graham is stepping down from his position.
After serving for more than 13 years, Graham is retiring Oct. 31. He was first elected on Nov. 2, 2010 and took office March 14, 2011. Prior to being elected, Graham, 55, worked in the Greene County Auditor’s Office as the chief deputy auditor for Luwanna Delaney for 10 years.
“When I came to the county in 2000, Luwanna taught me a lot about how the auditor’s office works,” said Graham, a Xenia resident. “It’s been a great experience. I’ve met a lot of great people and I’ve had a lot of support.”
Auditors are the fiscal officers for the county. They process payroll for every county employee, collect property taxes, and appraise property. The auditor’s office also sells dog tags and collected an estimated $500,000 last year from sales.
“The challenge of the job has been fun and I’ve enjoyed the people I work with,” said Graham, who added he feels there is work to be done in the legislature to bring property taxes down since they’ve grown by 30 percent.
According to the Ohio Revised Code, the Republican Central Committee can appoint a replacement and has 45 days to do so. The county commissioners can appoint an interim auditor until the central committee takes action. The appointee will serve until the next general election, when someone will be elected to serve the remainder of Graham’s term, which ends in 2026.
“None of us are here permanently. There will always be that next person who will step up to take the job,” Graham. “I will ensure the transition is as smooth as possible.”
Graham has his next venture in mind but is keeping that a secret for now.
“I’m not quite ready to disclose the new opportunities I’m looking at but it will probably be something relating to government accounting,” he said.
He said he did want to be around for the completion of a huge project his office has going on. The new real estate system should be done by Thanksgiving he said.
Reach Karen Rase at 937-502-4534.
